A song to make you feel good

All days are not happy. All days are not exciting. Today is one of those days when I am feeling very low. I was listening this song called Way Back Into Love from the movie 'Music and Lyrics'. This song makes me feel better. Its not the kind of song that uplifts your spirits. But I like it, and it makes me smile. I would have liked to upload the song here, but my internet is just too slow for it. Here is the link to this beautiful song :)

Way Back into Love

Honitus

I pay a ten rupees note to the photocopier for the eight-rupee worth photocopies. While I am expecting my two-rupees back, she hands me a Honitus. I didn't want a Honitus, I don't like Honitus. I would have appreciated if she had given me back my two rupees. Would she accept four Honitus for the photocopies?

An evening at Patan Durbar Square

I am feeling really sleepy but I just wanted to write about the great time I had at Patan Durbar Square today. I had never seen Kutumba perform (I know its surprising, but that's how it is). I had read and heard about their great music but somehow never really got a chance to attend their shows. If it was not for Z, may be I would have missed this chance as well. So, thank you Z for a great evening. Kutumba was awesome, and the best part is they were playing for this great cause. The proceeds from the show are going towards the establishment of a birthing centre in Mugu. I hope that the vision with which the event was organized is attained.

Food for thought

I am very careful with the quantity of food that is served on my plate. Not that I am obsessed with my weight (I used to be fat once upon a time, but it had nothing to do with the quantity of food I consumed). The plain reason is that I don't like wasting food. Ever since I was a kid, even when I nothing about world hunger, food scarcity, food security, and what nots, I made a point to finish off whatever was served to me. This must have come to me as a legacy from my father. He is an idealist in so many ways, and respecting food tops his list.

This world has many ugly sides to it; One of them is Hunger. Data show that there were 925 million hungry people in this world in 2010. This is a huge number. I am not saying that you will be feeding anyone if you do not waste food. You probably won't. May be the world hunger will remain at its present mark, may be people will keep dying of hunger, may be children will continue to be malnourished, may be women will keep dying during childbirth because of lack of proper food. But, by not wasting food, you will sleep peacefully without having any kind of guilt. You will know that you had only what was meant for you, what was your share.

I am not sure why am I writing about hunger and food today. May be I am feeling guilty . The first article I read today morning was about hunger and about ways we can avoid wasting food. And I was proud that I belong to the group that does not waste food. But today. when I went to a restaurant, I did otherwise. I tried to stuff myself with the extras, but just could not. So, it may be this guilt of throwing away food that compelled me to write this. I don't want to feel this way again. I will make a point to order only what I can eat the next time I visit a restaurant. I will certainly not be contributing anything to this world, but at least I will sleep peacefully.

On Friends

Today I was thinking about friends. I was thinking how strange individuals come into your life, and become a part of it till eternity. Well, you lose some on the path, but those who stick to you are the only ones you can call friends.

Yesterday I met A and B (didn't realize that combo!), with whom I have been friends for more than one and a half decade. Good lord! that's a long time. May be this is the reason that our relationship has transcended into something beautiful, something beyond just friendship. There are few people I share such a relationship with (well, that must be true for almost everyone), and I feel grateful to god for that.

Friends are certainly the fortress of our life. Only they will drum up enthusiasm and tag along when you want to do your nails at a salon. They show interest in your drawing room décor and listen to you for the nth time when the curtains don’t match the sofa covers and come up with intelligent solutions. When you are pushing 70 kgs and bawling the “I am so fat. I don’t know what to do” line, they do not snap and say “So, then exercise” rather give you a patient hearing and talk non-stop about salads, Atkins, gymming machines and yoga teachers till you can almost feel the fat melt.

They scrutinize your man more than they will scrutinize their own partners, because they are more concerned about your life than you yourself are. They will be there for you when your affair with your man blossoms and/if it fails. And if the latter happens, they will tell you how it was not your fault and that there’s a lot of fish in the sea and that he never deserved you and the like (it might not do any good, but they try nevertheless).

They take you on a crazy drive on their scooter on a rainy day without a raincoat to a distant place just to meet their recent crush, and act stupid in front of them, making you feel like a total fool, but still making it a memory you will cherish forever.

They will get drunk and sing the worst songs, dance to the tunes of 'undanceable' songs, laugh for no reasons, and help you forget the pain you have been carrying in your heart for days.

This post is dedicated to all those lovely people I can call 'friends', who have been there for me, who have rejoiced over my happiness, given me faith during hard times, and who let me be just me!

While I had started writing this post for friends in general, I realize that it turned out to be for my 'girlfriends') :)

The story of my room

It was day before yesterday that my bed was attacked by a rat in the middle of the night. While I was tucked in my bed, sleeping peacefully, the evil rat (I have no idea how it entered the house), found its way into my bedroom, got inside my blanket and walked over my body (ewww!!!). I realized it very late, when it got to the top of my body. I jumped out of my bed, and it too jumped, and ran outside my room. Holy s**t! It was a frog some day back and now a rat. I don't know why do they love my room so much. So, since yesterday morning, I have not left the door of my room open even for a minute. While I hate the thought of the rat inside the house, I hate it even more to think of it inside my room.

So, I was in my room nearly the whole day, with the door closed, trying to work on a pending project (with occasional drifting to facebook, blogs, cooking, etc). So, I took a careful look of my room, and the things that are in there. After shifting to the flat, I had no idea how I would make my room livable. Everything I bought, and gathered together has a story attached to it. I will give you a brief virtual walk around my room.

1. As soon as you enter the room, the first thing you will see is my book rack. On the top shelf of the rack, I have my bags (since I have no other place to keep them). As I count them, I think I have eight bags, including one laptop bag which my brother gave to me reluctantly, three jute bags that DR got for me from different places (for my love of jute), one leather bag that my sister gave to me which was gifted to her by her brother-in-law (she gave it willingly since she had nowhere to carry the bag), two cloth bags, of which one my brother got from Delhi and one was given to me by my former boss (he had got the bag in one of the conferences he attended in India),and one fake leather that I bought looong time back. Hmmm...so, I never realized but almost all my bags are gifts :) Thank you everyone! So, going back to the book rack, other shelves of the rack has what a book rack is supposed to have, loooots of books that I got from different places, books that I absolutely love. There are magazines, files, loose papers, photo albums, notes from my postgraduate days (they are not over yet. The thesis thing is hovering over me), etc etc.

2. On the upper left and upper right of the book rack, there are two beautiful and exquisite painting and collage by a very dear friend and a fabulous artist Chirag Bangdel. One is from his series Geet Govinda, and the other is his very famous multimedia collage work that he calls Tattva. Both these paintings give life to my room, and the painting of Geet Govinda is right in front of my bed. So, I wake up everyday looking at this beautiful piece of art, which calms my senses. I cannot thank him enough for gifting (yes! gifting) them to me. :))

3. On the right corner of the room, there is my almirah. It is a simple wooden almirah with a half body mirror to its right side. On the left part, I have pictures pasted all over it. These are the pictures of me with the most important people in my life. As you can see, there are a lot of them. There are some pictures in the inside of the almirah as well. On top of the almirah are some awards that I received for my involvement in service projects, mostly in LEO Club.

4. Between the almirah and my bed (read mattress), there is a small low-square-table (if you understand what I mean). I had self-designed this table and had asked the carpenter in my neighborhood to make it, and I was very happy with the fifnal output. This table is full of little things including the minimal cosmetics I use, a lamp, a crystal tortoise gifted to me by M, a crystal Ganesha given by my brother R, a photo frame of my late grandparents, a photo frame with a picture of me and my mom, a statute of Lord Krishna, perfumes, binder clips, few CDs, a penholder, business card holder and a box of 'eggless cookies' (which I am munching as I write).

5. Between the table and my mattress, there are books which I am reading, and have not been able to complete for many reasons. The books are Law, Liberty and Livelihood: Making a Living on the Street, Edited by Parth J Shah and Naveen Mandava, Love in the Time of Cholera by Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Unleashing Nepal by Sujeev Shakya, and Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy.

5. On my mattress, there are my blankets, pillows, some papers, and a cushion (which was given by my awesome team on my last birthday.

6. On the floor, above my carpet, there are lots of papers, notepads, books, my purse, a voice recorder, mobile cover, plates and bowls (which I have been too lazy to go and keep in the kitchen sink), and files which I always arrange when i clean but they end up becoming messy by the night.

7. There is also a hand made rug that my grandmother made. She was very good at them, and after she passed away last january, I brought one from home in her memory.

So, this is what my small room stores. I had never really looked at the things in this detail. While I completely hate the rat, I am happy that it made me sit quietly and enjoy what little I have :)

A question

I came back to Kathmandu after more than a month, and honestly, it feels great to be back. I mean, life seemed to have halted for a month for me. All I did was cook, and clean, and then again cook and clean. Anyway, yes, it feels great to be back. As I drove my scooter the first day..which did not start for a long time, and gave in only after DR drained all his energy to get it kickstarted. So, I was saying that as I drove my scooter for the first time after coming back, it felt great. Sometimes, even today, while I am driving, I cant believe that it is me. I was so so scared of driving. I had this feeling that all the microbus drivers, bus drivers, motorcyclists, and everyone in between would come and hit me as soon as I was on the road. Well, of course that is not true, they dont do it.

Anyway, so as I was driving, I thought about a lot of things. Thats what I do. I dont listen to music while I am driving. So, to entertain myself, I think. While I was thinking about a lot of things, one particular question intrigued me. So, we have so many men and women who have invented a lot of things, and made our life easy. For instance, Charles Babbage invented computers and is called the 'Father of Computer,' Galileo Galilei is called the 'Father of Science', Adam Smith, the 'Father of Economics', and so forth. I was wondering what would a woman be called if she was the inventor of all these. I mean, what if some Amanda Smith had written the Wealth of Nations, what if some Caroline Babbage had invented Computer, and what if some Grace Galilei was responsible for the birth of modern science? Would they be called mother of so and so...I wonder....I was googling how many fathers we have...here is a snapshot:))

Free time, finally!

This last month has been crazy. Although I was holidaying, I have had no free time to sit back and relax. It has been a lot of work, a lot of traveling, a lot of family events, festivities, cleaning, cooking, hosting guests, and so on. So, yesterday was one of those rare days when I just took it easy. I was spared of the kitchen work, and we had no guests at home. I watched two movies back to back.

The first one was The Black Swan and the second one was Serendipity. Thanks to my brother R who saved some 20 movies that he downloaded at his college. It has been long that I wanted to watch The Black Swan after all the critical acclaim and the awards that it received. It is a splendid movie. It is different, sort of unreal. DR thinks that it is grotesque. He couldn’t watch the movie after this one particular scene where Nina (played by Natalie Portman) peels off the skin from one of her fingers. Well, if he had watched the entire movie, he would see a lot more disturbing scenes. But that’s what movies are about. Sometimes, they show things and events that do not happen in real life. I loved all the dancing, the plot, the perfect bodies of the ballerinas, the passion, the darkness. It shows how far a person can go to attain perfection, or so I think. Although the movie made me sad, it also made me look back and think.



It was the second time I was watching Serendipity. Like Sarah in the movie, I have always loved the word ‘serendipity’, the way it sounds. I am a believer in fate, in destiny. I think that everything happens for a reason, and if something is meant to be, it would be. So, if was natural for me to enjoy the movie. It is a light movie, and was a welcome change after The Black Swan.

With this big time movie mood, I am planning to watch yet another movie. It is called (500) days of summer. I have no idea what the movie is about. Let’s hope it is entertaining!